Sunday, May 06, 2007

Kruti - A Community Project

A very close friend of mine, Raghav and his wife devote a lot of their spare time in running Kruti, a community project for slum children in school.

Veena, Raghav's better half, by all means ;), started this as part of a project in doing a personal improvement course, the name of which has escaped my mind now. It has grown to a good stage where it has helped the children dwelling in Gurppanpalya slum by creating "Joy, enthusiasm and dreams" for them.

I feel the last is quite important - that of allowing the children to dream of a better future, where their life is not just a struggle for a hand-to-mouth existence, but more rich and meaningful. A lot of projects are devoted to various areas such as education, health and more basic things, but this project is quite unique, in that it gives a new experience for those children. It has given them memories of a lifetime. Expressing your creative talent, which is not encouraged in more well-to-do families also, on a stage with so many people watching, would be so wonderful for these children.

The team has grown quite well and now counts more than a handful. I have been a strong vocal member, but as Raghav would readily agree, I have not done much beyond make some noises.

Part of the reason is geographical distance, but a major reason is that the group does not accept monetary contributions, yet, which is where many of us can help (with a few mouse clicks). However, the team wants us to go beyond such token contributions - if you really want to help, come down and work with us.

If you are in Bangalore and feel suffocated by the home-traffic-work-traffic-home routine, just drop in a few weekends. You will find that you find the "joy, enthusiasm and dreams" returning to your life.

You can visit the fledgling website at www.mykruti.com, where Raghav has yet to post details/pictures/videos of the latest event.

Do contact the team and let them know if you want to help. Help yourself.

2 Comments:

Hi… I think I have not acknowledged you for your contribution to Kruti … Today the www.mykruti.com is up and running because of your one mail that you had sent with all the details about the hosting and charges etc. Thanks for that …! Of course this nothing for the amount of talent and creativity you have (which is totally not used !) and your EGO (the only thing you use ). … love raghav